Five Civilized Tribes

(noun)

The Five Civilized Tribes were the five Native American nations—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—that were considered civilized by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because they adopted many of the colonists' customs and had generally good relations with their neighbors.

Related Terms

Examples of Five Civilized Tribes in the following topics:

  • Indian Resistance and Survival

    • Indian tribes fought over 40 wars for survival, killing at least 19,000 white settlers and soldiers and at least 30,000 American Indians.
    • As American expansion continued, Native Americans resisted settlers' encroachment in several regions of the new nation (and in unorganized territories), from the Northwest to the Southeast, and then in the West, as settlers encountered the tribes of the Great Plains.
    • Conflicts in the Southeast included the Creek War and Seminole Wars, both before and after the Indian Removals of most members of the Five Civilized Tribes, beginning in the 1830s under President Andrew Jackson.

  • American Indian Policy

    • As settlers moved west, Native American tribes were coerced into signing treaties that gave away their land.
    • Congress passed the General Allotment Act, which is considered one of the earliest attempts aimed toward assimilation of native tribes.
    • The Bureau of Indian Affairs kept a commanding hold on all aspects of native life, with the goal of "civilizing" natives.
    • The Dawes Commission, set up under an Indian Office appropriation bill in 1893, was created not to administer the Dawes Act, but to attempt to get the Five Civilized Tribes, which were excluded under the Dawes Act, to agree to an allotment plan.
    • This commission registered the members of the Five Civilized Tribes.

  • The Dawes Act and Indian Land Allotment

    • The Dawes Commission, set up under an Indian Office appropriation bill in 1893, was created, not to administer the Dawes Act, but to attempt to get the Five Civilized Tribes, which were excluded under the Dawes Act, to agree to an allotment plan.
    • This commission registered the members of the Five Civilized Tribes.
    • The Dawes Act had a negative effect on American Indians, as it ended their communal holding of property by which they had ensured that everyone had a home and a place in the tribe.
    • The act "was the culmination of American attempts to destroy tribes and their governments and to open Indian lands to settlement by non-Indians and to development by railroads" [C.S.

  • Changes in American Indian Life

    • The European colonists in North America often rationalized their expansion of their empire with the assumption that they were saving–as they perceived–a barbaric, pagan world by spreading Christian civilization.
    • The tribes trained and used horses to ride, carry goods for exchange with neighboring tribes, hunt game, and conduct wars and raids.
    • In the 1790s, Benjamin Hawkins was assigned as the U.S. agent to the southeastern tribes that became known as the Five Civilized Tribes, for their adoption of numerous Anglo-European practices.
    • Hawkins advised the tribes to take up slaveholding to aid them in European-style farming and plantations.
    • In the 19th century, some members of these tribes began to purchase African American slaves.

  • American Indian Relocation

    • The belief that indigenous people should abandon their traditional lives and become "civilized" had been the basis of policy for centuries.
    • The resolution established that Congress would pass termination acts on a tribe by tribe basis.
    • The five year deadline for making a claim, August 1951, caused many tribes to file in the months preceding the end of the registration period.
    • The Indian Health Service provided health care for many Indian tribes, but once a tribe was terminated all tribe members lost their eligibility. 
    • The Menominee tribe had 800 individuals within the tribe and 220 individuals who were unemployed in June 1968.

  • The Germanic Tribes

    • The Germanic tribes, an ancient nomadic civilization, used their superior military strength to lay the foundation for modern Europe.
    • These tribes generally lived to the north and east of the Gauls.
    • By approximately 250 BCE, additional expansion further southwards into central Europe took place, and five general groups of Germanic people emerged, each employing distinct linguistic dialects but sharing similar language innovations.
    • Wandering tribes then began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection.
    • Essentially, Roman civilization was overrun by these variants of Germanic peoples during the 5th century.

  • The Nomadic Tribes of Arabia

    • Some of the settled communities in the Arabian Peninsula developed into distinctive civilizations.
    • Sources for these civilizations are not extensive, and are limited to archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and Arab oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars.
    • Among the most prominent civilizations were Thamud, which arose around 3000 BCE and lasted to about 300 CE, and Dilmun, which arose around the end of the fourth millennium and lasted to about 600 CE.
    • Some tribes traded with towns in order to gain goods, while others raided other tribes for animals, women, gold, fabric, and other luxury items.
    • The Nabatean civilization in Jordan was an Aramaic-speaking ethnic mix of Canaanites, Arameans, and Arabs.

  • American Indian Policy and the Trail of Tears

    • Since the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, The U.S. policy had been to allow American Indians to remain east of the Mississippi while simultaneously forcing them to assimilate and become "civilized."
    • Jackson abandoned the policy of Jefferson and other predecessors and instead aggressively pursued plans to remove all American Indian tribes living in the southeastern states, regardless of whether they had assimilated to white culture or become "civilized."
    • While it did not authorize the forced removal of the American Indian tribes, it authorized the president to negotiate land-exchange treaties with tribes located in lands of the United States.
    • By the 1830s, many of the five major tribes in that area had assimilated into the dominant culture; some even owned slaves.
    • In 1831, members of these tribes decided to use the U.S.

  • Muhammad's Successors

    • Muhammad united the tribes of Arabia into a single Arab Muslim religious polity in the last years of his life.
    • After Muhammad's death, many Arabian tribes rejected Islam or withheld the alms tax established by Muhammad.
    • Many tribes claimed that they had submitted to Muhammad and that with Muhammad's death, their allegiance had ended.
    • Ali's tumultuous rule lasted only five years.
    • This period is known as the Fitna, or the first Islamic civil war.

  • Territorial Government

    • The federal government first acquired western territory from other nations or native tribes by treaty, and then it sent surveyors to map and document the land.
    • In addition to his role as civil governor, a territorial governor was also a militia commander, a local superintendent of Indian affairs, and the state liaison with federal agencies.
    • Corrupt associations, or "Territorial rings," of local politicians and business owners buttressed with federal patronage, embezzled from Indian tribes and local citizens, especially in the Dakota and New Mexico territories.
    • Through treaty, land title would be ceded by the resident tribes.
    • The Homestead Act granted 160 acres to each settler (whether a citizen or noncitizen, and including squatters and women) who improved the land for five years, for no more than modest filing fees.